They did it!

The dazzling display at the opening
ceremony of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games left the whole world breathless. Every
brilliant turn of the show was a new photo-opportunity. That explains why it was
so hard for us to pick out the15 most memorable moments.

AN HOUR BEFORE THE SHOW

Some details of the opening ceremony
were revealed just an hour before the show. Konstantin Ernst, the great mind
behind the performance, gave in to the journalistic pressure and spilled at
least some of the beans. He admitted the show would consist of 18 chapters from
Russian history squeezed into 2.5 hours, the national team would parade to the
sounds of ‘Not Gonna Get Us’, a hit from the once very popular band
t.A.T.u. Opera singer Anna Netrebko
would also sing the national anthem.

But the festive Olympic spirit was
spreading across Sochi long before.

At Sochi airport, the arriving
spectators were greeted by members of Coca-Cola cheering "We’re very happy
you’ve come to Sochi"

The most impatient could choose to go to
the Olympic Park straight from the airport. It was open from 6 in the
evening.

Слайд-шоу: Olympic Games Opening Ceremony

Prior to the opening there were more
than just journalists, volunteers and spectators.

One minute before the ceremony.

Nearly no free spaces. And those spots
still available will be taken by athletes from the national teams after the
parade. 40,000 people in all!

SOCHI 2014 OPENING CEREMONY

There was a lot of speculation about the
main storyline of the ceremony. But no one was even close.

The beginning of the show. Athletes come
out in to the main Olympic arena. A projection of unbelievable resolution shows
a picture of their respective countries. Konstantin Ernst promised this part of
the show would be very dynamic, saying usually it's a little neglected. In
Sochi they did it differently.

The Greeks, who were the founders of the
Olympic movement, were the first ones to enter the Fisht Olympic Stadium.
We will skip straight to the Russian team - 223 athletes. The biggest
national team at the Games Самая. The next biggest teams came from Canada and
the US. Make sure you pay attention to the Olympic Uniforms.

The main character in the ceremony is
11-year-old Lisa from Krasnodar. She was picked from 8000 candidates. She
played the role of Lyubov (the name translates as Love), a girl who is sleeping
and seeing Russia’s history in her dreams.

First it's the alphabet. Tolstoy is at
Т. Russian poet Pushkin is at Ъ - a soundless letter was always at the end of
his name in the 18th century. The very last Russian letter Я is assigned to
Russia (it's also the last letter in the name of the country). Lyubov is
symbolizing Russia. She is a small girl flying in her dreams. And here is
Nabokov. By the way, every episode was narrated in 3 languages: French, English
and Russian.

The dream continues. Islands pass across
the arena, each symbolizing a Russian region. Some of them have birch trees,
others northern wooden churches or Kamchatka volcanoes. Each island weighed 5-7
tons.

Next into the arena the Olympic mascots
– A White Bear, Bunny and a Leopard. It seems they can skate almost as well as
Plushenko. The dolls were assembled in Australia. To make them look like they
are breathing, they contain special balloons that release air from time to
time.

The short movie on Russian history was made
by director Djanik Faiziev. Curiously enough, everything started here - close
to Sochi - from Jason and the Argonauts. Nearly a dozen of Russia’s most
popular actors took part in the movie, the rest of the characters were drawn,
not real.

You can't speak about Russian history
without mentioning the Troika. To be able to hold this huge installation (which
took over 100 days to put together) the Fisht stadium’s roof was strengthened with
special equipment capable of supporting dozens of tons.

The Chudo-Yudo Fish-Whale was another
huge insallation. It stopped in the middle of the arena as symbols showing
Russia's most well known churches rose into the air.

Russian history continues in Lyubov's
dream. We watch the black and white times of Peter I and step into the 19th
century. It's the ball of Natasha Rostova from Tolstoy's renowned 'War
and Peace'. Vladimir Vasilyev and Svetlana Zakharova receive rapturous
applause.

It's worth mentioning, that the
organizers wanted to lower a huge chandelier with the orchestra’s director
on it, but there was not enough time to turn that idea into reality.

Quick and wild comes the 20th century. To
the sound of beautifully compiled music we see futuristic scenes made up of
Malevich paintings and Soviet propaganda banners. By the end the impressive
'Soviet Union' construction breaks down. Here is where they should have spoken
about World War 2, but the International Olympic Committee prohibits any representation
of war. So they didn't. They just turned the sirens on and pointed searchlights
into the ski. And the message got through.

Konstantin Ernst wanted to stop the show
for exactly a minute - to commemorate the fallen. Each spectator would have
received a small tablet with a name showing 40,000 of the deceased’s names.
However, the IOC did not allow that, fearing it could become a tradition for
following Games.

Слайд-шоу: Olympic Games Opening Ceremony

It's getting lighter and here come the Pioneers,
Cosmonauts, scientists and Teddy Youths. Look at those retro-cars! They are
driven by their owners. Car collectors also went through casting. We are very
close to the end of Lyubov's dream now.

Слайд-шоу: Olympic Games Opening Ceremony

We will skip the solemn speech by Thomas
Bach and the short 'I pronounce the Games open' by Vladimir Putin (just looking
at his face you could tell he was very emotional). We will go straight to the
wonderful and joyful final part when Russia’s most celebrated sportsmen
Vladislav Tretyak and Irina Rodnina lit the Olympic Flame (it took a whole
minute to start it during rehearsal). Then come the fireworks!

Слайд-шоу: Olympic Games Opening Ceremony

Now, the final hurrah: the dance of the
jellyfish. I mean swans. That is done to the music from "Swan Lake"
by Chaikovsky.

Here they also planned it a little
differently. They wanted beautiful doves flying all the way to the roof among
40 aerial gymnasts. But again – there was no time to prepare that.

As we look back at that beautiful
ceremony, it’s a chance to relivw emotions. It was a brilliant show - one of the
best in the history of the Games.

We congratulate everyone who had a hand
in it!

* You should have seen the face of Konstantin Ernst and his team as they
watched the show from their control center. After it was over, they ran
downstairs to where the artists were shouting - 'We did it! We did it!"
Just like the medal winners!